HW: Alien Lyrics

[J Strobridge]

> I haven't heard Alien yet so the music is an unknown for me.  However, the
> lyrics for "Alien"and "Festival" are most cheery.  Just the sort of thing I
> want to run through my mind as I sit in traffic.   Hope there are no sharp
> edges on the CD when I finally get it.  "Right to Decide" has a bit of a
> dire message, but the music makes it a good tune.  Since Ron's vocals may
> not save these songs, are they good musically?
>

Well none of Hawkwind's lyrics are exactly the bouncy jolly stuff....
<thinks "dare I put a smiley in here?">  8-)   But I'm content that
Hawkwind lyrics continue to explore the slightly darker, discontentments
of life.   It's not so much that the lyrics always dwell on doomy
subjects - more that they often point out that there is a problem here
and it's worth facing up to it instead of trying to pretend it doesn't
exist.

Alien is largely redeemed (a) by the lyrics actually making sense for
once and (b) because the rhythm of this song is (or it can be live - I'm
not sure this studio version has entirely captured the power of the
track) is surprisingly powerful.    It's done in a minor key but somehow
the emotional surge of the opening chords and the rhythm after that just
sweeps it along.   I liked this track long before I could work out the
words!

Festivals is an odd track.    It's one of Brock's chants - fast and
surprisingly uptempo, it almost sounds as if Brock is more amused
than horrified by the subject of his song.   As if he is saying
"what a load of stupid twats we were to have let this happen in
the first place but I guess it was inevitable" type of thing.
Sympathetic rather than despairing.

IMO of course!

jill


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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at castle.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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